Sunny Saturday News

Editor OGN Daily
3 minutes ago
3 min read

What better way to start the weekend than with some uplifting news?

Star of Stars

A planetary scientist has been made the first female astronomer royal. Prof Michele Dougherty, a leading space physicist who was a researcher for the Nasa Cassini mission, has been awarded the 350-year-old honorary title. As an investigator on two major space missions, Dougherty has played a role in major discoveries in the solar system, including the revelation that jets of water vapour shoot out of one of Saturn’s moons, Enceladus, meaning it may be able to support life. The role of Astronomer Royal dates back to the creation of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, in 1675, with the aim of discovering how to determine longitude at sea when out of sight of land. The outgoing astronomer royal, Martin Rees, is retiring from the role.

Llama antibody discovery

Llamas & Schizophrenia

Scientists from the Université de Montpellier’s Institute of Functional Genomics in France, have harnessed a unique llama antibody to create ‘nanobodies’ capable of slipping through the blood-brain barrier to target receptors, and one day could be used to treat schizophrenia - one of the world’s most complex mental illnesses. “Our results establish a proof of concept that nanobodies can target brain receptors, and pave the way for nanobody-based therapeutic strategies for the treatment of brain disorders,” the study authors wrote in the journal Nature.

A canvas splattered in paint, by Ed Sheeran — Credit: HENI, London

Cosmic Sheeran

It turns out that Ed Sheeran is more than just a best-selling and award-winning musician. He’s also something of a painter. At HENI in London, Sheeran is currently exhibiting his Cosmic Carpark Paintings, a series of splattered canvases that he produced as a way to maintain his creativity whenever he would step away from music. His paintings, as the musician himself admits, seek to emulate the spontaneity and vibrancy of Jackson Pollock’s work, with Sheeran dripping, throwing, and splashing “colorful house paint” across monumental canvases.

Exterior of an anaerobic digester facility in Vermont — Credit: Ben & Jerry's

Industrial Symbiosis

Apart from its taste, there's another good reason to tuck into your favourite Ben & Jerry’s ice cream because the company is partnering with PurposeEnergy to recycle its food waste into renewable energy. Here’s the scoop: At a facility in Vermont, leftover ice cream and other ingredients go into an anaerobic digester, where microbes digest the waste and generate methane gas, which is then captured and converted into an energy source. This energy powers the facility and contributes an estimated 8.75 million kilowatt hours to the Vermont grid annually. Furthermore, it diverts leftovers from landfills, lowering phosphorus pollution, and centralizing food waste management. It’s a win for the planet without changing a thing about the ice creams we all know and love.

Seahorse floating beside a rock — Seahorse

Seahorse Resurgence

Conservation efforts have been credited for a spike in seahorse sightings off the coast of Dorset, in south west England. The Seahorse Trust has been monitoring numbers in Studland Bay since 2008 and the introduction of more seagrass habitat for the tiny fish has been transformative. For about two years there were no sightings, but now divers are totting up as many as 33 of the endearing creatures in a single survey. Uniquely, the male seahorse is equipped with a brood pouch on the ventral, or front-facing, side of the tail. When mating, the female seahorse deposits up to 1,500 eggs in the male's pouch. The male carries the eggs for 9 to 45 days until the seahorses emerge fully developed, but very small. The young are then released into the water.

No Laughing Matter

"We thank the snickering, puerile 12-year-old boys who dominate the internet for their deep insights." Toronto Transit Commission spokesperson Stuart Green reacts to social media mockery of the transport agency's rebranding of ticket inspectors as "Provincial Offences Officers" - or "POOs", for short. Green said that fare-dodgers face stiff fines at the hands of POOs, "which is no laughing matter".

“Never put off till tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow just as well.” Mark Twain

On This Day

2 August 1610: English explorer Henry Hudson enters the bay in Canada later named after him, the Hudson Bay. A year earlier, he became the first European to discover the island of Manhattan and New York's Hudson River is also named after him.